Monday, 21 October 2013

Week 10 & 11 – Head of State, Helicopters & Hyperemesis by Helen

Despite the Autumnal weather, we are still 9k’ing
come wind, rain or shine. Our week 10 walk around Nonsuch Park had all three
which was weird. We also sort of crashed a wedding.

Can't see them here but Wedding guests are loitering beyond the trees!

﻿

Sauntering...

Did you know:The name "Nonesuch" was given as, it was
claimed, there was "none such place like it" in Europe. In 1538 Henry VIII
demolished the entire village of Cuddington to build Nonsuch Palace.Six months after his only son was born
,building work started on the Palace which was to be a celebration of the power
and the grandeur of the Tudor dynasty.The palace was incomplete when Henry VIII died in 1547 and it was later
pulled down around 1682–3 and the building materials sold off to pay gambling
debts of the then owner Barbara, Countess of Castlemaine.Bit of a disaster, really.

Week 11 was about as successful as Henry Tudor’s
Palace.No 9k to speak of and I have no
excuse. Sometimes life just gets in the way of best laid plans. So 2 x 9ks for week 12 then. Ouch.

My week 9 amnesia continues into week 10 as I
continued to drift in and out of consciousness, moving only for tiny tentative
sips of water and drugs to avoid triggering the nausea and a fit of retching.

Week 11 is slightly clearer for a few reasons:

1: I stopped taking metaclopromide as I was
convinced it was making me drowsy and more nauseous. Turns out it was
definitely contributing to the cloudy brain, hence the memory loss, and quite
probably causing a little of the nausea rather than preventing it, as not long
after…

2: I managed to eat FOUR slices of a small Dominoes
pizza!Well… in a 24 hour period.The pizza in question lay in its little box
on Rich’s side of the bed (husband relegated to the spare room in favour of
pizza – good call) and I took one bite each time I stirred from my sickly
slumber.

3: This was the week of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee
and to mark the beginning of the celebrations she attended the Epsom Derby on 2nd
June 2012.We live 3 miles from Epsom
Racecourse. Now, whilst I am a big fan
of the Queen and her family I can officially announce that I am not a fan of their
helicopters.I fully appreciate that the
Queen requires security on her visits and occasionally appropriate security
measures will call for the use of air patrols.However, is it absolutely necessary to deploy three low-flying
helicopters circling systematically over a 1 mile squared area of suburban
Surrey!?As I lay on my death bed I observed
that roughly every two minutes a single helicopter would fly directly over my
house.Although - and I couldn’t and
still can’t work out how or why this happened - in a twist of pure evil, every
6 minutes or so two helicopters would simultaneously be travelling over my head.Helicopters are noisy.Helicopters that fly slowly and low to the
ground are even louder.Each advancing
helicopter’s ‘whop-whop-whop’ boom from the blades triggered an almighty surge
of nausea, relieved by its inevitable departure, only to be replaced moments
later by the next torturous fly-by.This
perpetual little dance lasted for most of the day.I wanted to shoot myself in the ears.

Similar delights this week included a quaint little
Jubilee Street Party for our lovely little cul de sac… it took place directly
below my bedroom window.It rained and I
was secretly thrilled that if I couldn’t enjoy a Street Party then nobody else
was going to either.Bitter?Unashamedly so.

One thing I almost managed to enjoy was the Jubilee
Concert on TV.Disappointed that I
didn’t make it out of bed and downstairs in time to catch Robbie William’s
opening number, I certainly enjoyed smirking at Lenny Henry’s awkward stand-up,
staring in disbelief as Grace Jones hula-hooped her way through a song, mocking
Will.I.Am lurking uncomfortably behind Stevie Wonder and berating Paul
McCartney for destroying the Beatles’ back catalogue in one distressing set.Still, at least I got to see Robbie’s second
appearance and even sing along without retching – ta daaaa!

Got to find the silver lining somewhere even if it
means celebrating just 3 minutes and 25 seconds of activity without a sicky outcome!